Lawyer: Iran court holds final hearing for detained Post journalist
Ali Rezaian, brother of Jason Rezaian, The Washington Post's Tehran correspondent, gives an update on his detention in Iran at the National Press Club in Washington on July 22. (Molly Riley/AP)
An Iranian court on Monday held its final hearing in the trial of a Washington Post journalist facing charges, including espionage, and a decision could come within the week, his attorney said.
The move toward a possible verdict comes more than a year after Iranian authorities detained Jason Rezaian, The Post’s correspondent in Tehran. He has strongly denied the allegations in a case that has drawn appeals for his release from the State Department, international media watchdog groups and others.
Some U.S. lawmakers also have questioned why negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program did not include explicit demands for the release of Rezaian and other Americans held in Iran.
The Post’s executive editor, Martin Baron, noted that no evidence was presented against Rezaian in Tehran’s Revolutionary Court since the closed-door proceedings began in May. He urged Iran’s leaders to end the “nonsensical” prosecution and give back Rezaian and his Iranian wife, Yeganeh Salehi, a journalist for The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi who faces similar charges, their “freedom and lives.”
Washington Post Tehran correspondent Jason Rezaian was arrested July 22, 2014. He is on trial in Iran for espionage charges. The U.S. government, The Post, the Committee to Protect Journalists and his family all say he was simply working as a journalist and that he should be freed immediately. (Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post)
Rezaian’s attorney, Leila Ahsan, said the court has one week to issue its verdict, according to a statement issued by Rezaian’s family. She gave no other details and is allowed to speak only with Iran-based media outlets.
Ahsan presented “both verbal and written” defense briefs to the court on Monday, and Rezaian “denied any wrongdoing” as he repeated his not guilty plea, she was quoted as saying in the family statement.
“There is no evidence that would support the charges against Jason,” the statement quoted Ahsan as saying. “I expect nothing but his full acquittal.”
She also said she told the court that she “strongly objected” to secret evidence shared only between the judge and prosecution.
“By Iranian law, only evidence in the case file can be used against my client,” she told Rezaian’s family, according to the statement.
Rezaian reportedly faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. The charges against him include espionage and distributing propaganda against Iran.
Rezaian, 39, a dual Iranian-American citizen, was detained in July 2014 with his wife and two photojournalists. Salehi was later released on bail. One of the photojournalists also faces charges related to the case.
Some of the claims against Rezaian appear to stem from a visit he made to a U.S. consulate seeking a visa for his wife and a letter he wrote seeking a job in the Obama administration in 2008 — material that was apparently taken from his confiscated laptop.
“After just four secret hearings in 10 weeks, the sham trial of The Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian has ended in Tehran, but it remains unclear even to Jason’s lawyer what might happen next,” Baron said a statement. “No verdict was announced, Iran’s Revolutionary Court has offered no official indication of when such an announcement might come.”
Baron added: “The process has been anything but transparent and just, and that pattern persists. The only thing that is clear is Jason’s innocence. He is a dedicated, law-abiding journalist and a good man who has been targeted with nonsensical, unsupportable, and entirely baseless allegations of espionage and other offenses.
“He has been made to suffer physically and psychologically, and for that there is no excuse. His arrest, imprisonment, and now this sham trial contradict every standard required for the fair administration of justice, and they violate international law, Iran’s own laws, and fundamental human decency.
“Now is the time for Iran’s senior leaders to end this ‘judicial process,’ with its sick brew of farce and tragedy. Jason and his wife, Yeganeh, who has been out on bail, deserve to be exonerated and to be given back their freedom and lives.”
Family members and others have been blocked from attending the court sessions.
Outside the courtroom, Rezaian’s mother, Mary Breme Rezaian, said her son was targeted by Iranian hard-liners and is “paying the price of the suspicion, the animosity and the paranoia between the two countries.”
“Any verdict besides acquittal is a political verdict,” she told journalists.
Ali Rezaian, who has been leading a U.S.-based campaign for his brother’s release, called Iran’s actions “unconscionable.”
“My brother’s life has been cruelly interrupted for over a year for crimes he did not commit,” Ali Rezaian said in statement. “His unlawful detention has carried on for far too long and he deserves to be vindicated and set free without further delay.”
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Brian Murphy joined the Post after more than 20 years as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief for the Associated Press in Europe and the Middle East. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has written three books.
